Occupational Therapy News OTnews April 2019 | Page 3

W
ith only a couple of months to go until this year’s RCOT
annual conference and exhibition, to be held in June in
Birmingham, I recently sat down with one of the
speakers, James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care at
NHS England, to talk about some of the new opportunities
occupational therapists in England have to support people in ever
more innovative and new ways.
Mr Sanderson oversees strategy and delivery for a range of
programmes that are helping to empower people to have greater
choice and control over their care; including shared decision-
making, personalised care and support planning, approaches to
self management support, self-care, personal health budgets,
social prescribing and patient choice.
Having worked with a significant number of occupational therapists over the years, he recognises
just how closely aligned the personalised care agenda and occupational therapy are; and he calls on
the profession to keep creating innovative packages that both support and benefit individuals, but are
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also much more cost effective for the system. That way ‘everybody wins’, he says. Turn to page 14 to
read the full interview.
On a different note, RCOT has recently appointed a professional adviser in health informatics, Suzy
England, and on pages 38 to 40, we talk to her about health informatics and the digital transformation
of health and care services. We ask her to explain what digital transformation is all about, what the
relationship with health informatics is, why this is so important to occupational therapists, what the
main challenges are, and who occupational therapists should be talking to.
Don’t be put off by language or terminology; Suzy believes there is a ‘good degree of digital
literacy’ in everyone, and she’s here to support all occupational therapists with the resources to help.
Finally, back in 2017, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section – Oncology
and Palliative Care (RCOTSS-OPC) set out to explore the experiences of occupational therapists
delivering palliative care and palliative rehabilitation across generalist and specialist services.
Following a Twitter pilot to explore the interest in the topic, ethical approval was obtained to
undertake seven focus groups across the UK. On pages 20 to 22 of this issue, Jeni Woods, chair of
RCOTSS-OPC, and Lara Cowpe, RCOTSS-OPC research and education liaison, look at why
palliative care is an increasing priority for healthcare in the UK, what the challenges are for
occupational therapists working in this area, whose responsibility it is to deliver palliative care, and
when a generalist occupational therapist might refer to a specialist palliative care occupational
therapist.
This is only a brief outline of the project, and a full report of the findings of the engagement
sessions can be obtained by contacting the specialist section. We hope you enjoy this issue.
Tracey Samuels, Editor
If you have any feedback about this issue of OTnews, or
would like to contribute a short article or feature for a future
publication, please email me at: [e-mail]